It’s that time of year where many of us are ready for some fresh, feel-good foods! Enter: Vegetables!
But…I admit I am a little bit picky with the flavors & textures of my veggies. I really love a lot of different vegetables, IF prepared in certain ways! My husband can consume almost any vegetable, cooked or raw, roasted or steamed…it’s a talent.
I had this problem the past year or so where I was buying produce for recipes that sounded really delicious but… it just wouldn’t happen! Who has time lately for washing + peeling + chopping + roasting veggies, to then add a homemade vinaigrette on top?? Plus an actual entree to go with it? Plus the side dish that my toddler will ACTUALLY eat? Forget it. I had to scale back and be realistic about what I could actually make on busy weekdays and chaotic weekends.
Here are the methods I’ve been using a lot more in this crazy stage of life. Maybe it will jog your brain and help you find ways to cut corners in your veggie life too.
1. Let’s Talk Frozen (the type of veg, not the hit movie)
This is a hack that all humans everywhere should take advantage of at all times BECAUSE SOMEWHERE IN ASIA THERE IS AN EXPAT CRYING THAT THEY AREN’T READILY AVAILABLE! I mean, hypothetically, that could be happening. Frozen vegetables are the greatest invention since sliced bread, honestly. The nutrients are very comparable to fresh veg., since they are picked at an optimal time & preserved to keep all that goodness inside.
And what I care about even more than that is that YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WASH AND CHOP yourself!
You just rip open the bag and dump them into a pot. Or literally put that bag right into the microwave. It’s magic, and it’s happening a lot over in our house these days.
Our current faves:
- peas
- okra (to add to jambalaya)
- the classic medley of carrots/peas/corn
- green beans
- broccoli (easy to add to casseroles)
- brussels sprouts (for the husband- I’d rather die than eat them this way)
- roasted corn (one of the 15 foods we buy regularly from Trader Joes)
- Trader Joes Vegetable Melange (butter sauce for days)
- Costco stir fry blend (just heat & add soy sauce + frozen ginger + garlic)
- frozen garlic and ginger !!!
2. Take Advantage of Canned Vegetables
Yeah…very slightly less delicious and less nutritious, generally speaking. But let’s end this snobbery that it should be perfect to make it worth your time! The benefit to canned foods is obviously how shelf-stable they are. I mean, some of our cans right now don’t expire for two and a half years!
It’s excellent food storage to have on hand in case anything happens (like, say, a global pandemic), OR just for those days when you don’t make it to the store and your fridge is looking pretty bare.
You can make lots of soups and chilis using primarily canned vegetables (especially tomatoes), and beans!
Our favorite canned vegetables:
- corn
- diced tomatoes (fire roasted!)
- pumpkin puree (for my 3 favorite fall pumpkin recipes!)
- green beans (french cut, Oo la la!)
3. Throw Vegetables Into Other Dishes:
I’m not trying to get complicated, I promise. This has to be very simple to actually be a hack. It’s only gonna happen for me if it’s a pre-washed/ no-chopping/ dump from the container kind of situation.
Here are some examples:
- throw handfuls of kale into your soup
- toss spinach leaves into a smoothie
- add store-bought shredded carrots into muffin batter
- scoop some canned pumpkin into your chili or oatmeal
- add frozen peas to boxed mac & cheese
4. Prep Vegetables Ahead in Batches
The Lazy Genius is a master of this concept, and calls it “batching”. Do all the work ONCE, and reap the rewards for days to come.
There are a few different ways to do this:
1. Cut raw vegetables ahead of time for snacking or packed lunches.
Once upon a time, when the world wasn’t shut down and we didn’t have school drop off and pick up schedules weighing us down… I’d take my kids on outings pretty often: aquariums, zoos, kids museums, large city parks. Buying food at these places can get expensive quickly. When I was on my A-game I would wash and cut (and peel for my selective audiences) fruits and veg to take as snacks or to go with lunch.
When you batch them all at the same time, you can have a variety of flavors versus just the cherry tomatoes you grabbed on the way out the door. This works best with sturdier vegetables, like carrots, celery & peppers.
2. Chop/dice/mince vegetables ahead of time to add to recipes:
Chop a ton of onions or celery or carrots and keep them in the fridge for several days to add quickly to all sorts of meals! This shortens the time between you walking in the door after work to the time when dinner is complete and ready to consume…which is a beautiful thing after a long day.
You can also wash & chop a ton of romaine for the week (throw in a ziplock with a paper towel to absorb moisture), then just add Caesar dressing & parmesan…OR…
3. Prep AND COOK the veggies ahead of time, in large quantities.
You could keep it “simple” and roast a huge pan of whatever you have in the fridge. OR prep a big pot of veggie-loaded pasta sauce, simple soup, etc. and freeze several portions for future busy weeknights! Or for lunches all week! Voila.
Some saintly humans also do this with homemade baby purees– puree and freeze in large batches. To be clear, I do not….but that fits in this category too!
I love to do any of this prep in the evenings with a soundtrack or podcast I really enjoy. The time goes pretty quickly, and your future self will thank you profusely.
5. Buy Shortcuts:
So… even easier than washing, chopping, and prepping yourself ahead of time…is paying a bit more at the grocery store for someone to do the prep FOR you. Obviously this isn’t always in the budget. It’s pretty luxurious to buy the cubed butternut squash in the refrigerated section at Trader Joes versus the whole massive squash!
I especially love having pre-prepped veggies around during the baby stage. If we have something that’s already been washed and cut, I’m much more likely to steam it up real quick & serve it to my 9 month old.
Great veggies to buy pre-prepped:
- cubed butternut squash (to add to soups or roast)
- broccoli florets (just throw on the sheet pan & roast)
- Garlic!!! (honestly it tastes different all minced up in the jar…but not different enough that I won’t use it 98% of the time over peeling and smashing it fresh)
- shaved brussel sprouts (all ready for a crunchy salad!)
- sliced mushrooms (stir fry!)
- a whole veggie tray!
Fair warning: mixed, chopped groupings from the store often spoil quicker….like mixed veggie medley trays ready-to-grill, and mirepoix (celery/carrots/onions diced)…so just watch your expiration dates and consume these sooner rather than later. This is true for all pre-prepped veggies, too.
6. Cook Things Whole:
There are usually several ways to cook the same vegetable. Make it easier on yourself and choose the method that’s the least hands-on.
A whole, baked sweet potato is way easier to get into the oven than peeled & chopped sweet potato fries. (But…just so we are clear, homemade baked sweet potato fries are amazing. Especially this recipe from Cookie & Kate). Unsurprisingly, this holds up for russet baked potatoes too.
Slice that zucchini down the center ONCE and pile the parm onto your zucchini boats. Don’t try to be Emeril and grate or chop it into small rounds for a weeknight anything.
7. Choose vegetables that don’t require peeling and chopping
Some vegetables come PRE-PREPPED for your convenience. Just, that’s the way they exist. Isn’t that cool of them?
I’m thinking here about:
- baby carrots
- cherry tomatoes
- mini bell peppers
- sugar snap peas…all the little cute things.
Veggies you can boil or grill that are on the lower-maintenance side of things:
- corn on the cob
- asparagus
- green beans
8. Simplify Salads
You can simplify the salad process at pretty much every step of the process:
- Sidestep the whole hulabaloo and buy bagged salads. End of story.
- Buy the salad dressing rather than making it from scratch (or make very simple vinaigrettes that keep..see batching step above!)
- Choose greens that don’t need to be washed & chopped: ie arugula and spinach
- Choose bags of greens that have been washed & chopped for you: romaine, iceberg, kale, cabbage
- Keep salad toppings in one area, easy to pull out (dried craisins, toasted nuts, seeds, croutons in a small bin in the pantry)
9. Put your vegetables in a VISIBLE location
When I have a bowl of cherry tomatoes on the kitchen table in view I am more likely to eat them than when they are hidden on top of the fridge, or at the bottom of the veggie drawer in the fridge.
Obviously, many veggies need to be stored in the fridge (or somewhere dark, like our potato friends). But where possible, put those vegetables somewhere you’ll be more likely to remember them before they spoil!
10. Buy and eat vegetables you REALLY ENJOY eating!
Don’t worry about being an aspirational vegetable consumer this year. We are all getting out of a pandemic, and life is too short. Buy your favorite and familiar vegetables that you look forward to eating, and don’t feel guilty for a lack of massive variety or lack of exposure for your kids to exotic root veggies (do those exist?).
Cafe Rio salads always sounds good to me!
This holds true for take-out as well! Don’t feel obligated to buy a salad or wrap off the menu that has a great list of veggies but doesn’t sound delicious to you. Maybe you love eating veggies in soups, pasta sauce, or curries…or salsa!!
Or maybe you just despise ALL vegetables like a certain child of mine, and that’s fine too. 🙂
Happy New Year, and happy eating!!!
Cover Photo by Roman Grachev on Unsplash
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